Romania's most vicious anti-Semitic and ultra-nationalist politician, Corneliu Vadim Tudor, is trying hard to persuade people that he has changed his ways. For most journalists and political pundits in Romania, this self-proclaimed Damascene conversion looks like just another political farce from someone with unrivaled histrionic gifts.
If Tudor were a mere political clown, the question of whether or not he still hates Jews would not matter. But Tudor is a political power to be reckoned with. As parliamentary and presidential elections loom, everyone wants to figure out just what he is up to.
Tudor was ex-dictator Nicolae Ceausescu's court poet. He supported the Securitate (Romania's communist-era secret police) and praised Ceausescu's patriotism. When communism collapsed, he blamed every shortcoming in the reform process on "foreigners" - meaning the West, Romania's ethnic Hungarian minority, and especially the Jews. Indeed, he developed a cult for Marshall Ion Antonescu, Romania's dictator between 1940-1944 and Hitler's ally, who was responsible of ordering the massacre of about 200,000 Jews. The violence of Tudor's rhetoric, directed against everybody who opposed him, rose to heights not seen since the Fascist era.
In 1990, Tudor set up a weekly magazine through which he incited vicious and reactionary campaigns. Soon after he founded the extreme nationalist Greater Romania Party (PRM), as well as a so-called "national treason list," on which almost every notable political and cultural figure had his or her place. He threatened (or promised) that criminals would be herded into stadiums and machine-gunned should he come to power.
Although Tudor faced innumerable lawsuits for libel, he could not be silenced. In the 2000 general election, as the ruling center-right coalition imploded, the PRM received about 20% of the popular vote, becoming the second-largest party in parliament. Tudor subsequently finished second in the presidential election.
Then, suddenly, a few months ago, Tudor announced that he had undergone a religious experience and had changed his mind about the Jews. He admitted that he had been anti-Semitic, but he claimed that God had opened his eyes and that he now loved Jews as much as he used to hate them.
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Indeed, he began apologizing for his earlier anti-Semitic hate speech. The man who once said that he could "well imagine world culture without Jews" now claimed to realize how quintessential the Jews are for world culture. He announced that he had hired Eyal Arad, a well-known Israeli spin-doctor, to run his presidential campaign. "The Jews" were not his enemies any more, he said; they were even working for him.
But Tudor didn't stop with prolix apologies. He soon sponsored the unveiling of a bust of the assassinated Israeli premier Yitzak Rabin at Brasov in Transylvania. For the occasion, Tudor wore a yarmulke and spoke about his "philo-Semitism" for more than two hours . Other PRM representatives, provided with yarmulkes by Tudor, shuffled their feet awkwardly.
A chorus sang Romanian and Jewish songs and everybody expressed the vow that Vadim would be the "next and the first Christian President" of Romania, the yarmulke notwithstanding! Next, Tudor headed a PRM delegation to lay a wreath at Auschwitz, where the one-time Holocaust denier declared that Jews had been exterminated in Romania.
What lies behind this political opportunism? Tudor knows that his electoral success in 2000 belongs to the past. At the local elections held in June, the PRM did poorly. The really big battle this November will be joined by the Social Democrats (PDSR) and by the centrist alliance Democratic Alliance. Tudor has no chance of becoming "the first Christian President of Romania." His only chance of gaining even a share of power is to join in a future coalition, and for this he has to look semi-respectable.
In fact, Tudor's strategy may work, because the ex-communist PDSR, led by President Ion Iliescu and Prime Minister Adrian Nastase, will probably not oppose such an alliance if it is necessary to give them a majority after November's general election. They are desperate to cling to power, no matter what, and so are unlikely to question Tudor's democratic pedigree. After all, they governed together with the PRM from1992 to 1996.
Yet, there is a hitch: Romania is due to join the EU in 2007, and with the PRM in the government but branded as an extremist, anti-Semitic party, the integration process could be derailed. No EU government will want to invite into the club an administration that contains Romania's far uglier version of Le Pen and Haider. This is why Tudor desperately needs a patina of democratic respectability. Tudor seems to hope that by putting on a yarmulke and repenting his anti-Semitism, he will deceive a few naive Western politicians.
But no one should be fooled. Despite his political zigzags, Tudor has been extremely consistent. He has always thought and written that "the Jews" brought capitalism, communism, spiritualism, alcoholism, decadent Hollywood movies, and pornography to Romania. But saying that publicly won't work anymore, not because Romanians do not think this way (many certainly do), but because the political class from left to right wants to be part of Europe and won't associate with anyone who puts that desire at risk.
So Tudor's embrace of the Jews is a conversion of convenience. If Paris was worth a mass to the French kings of old, Bucharest is worth a yarmulke to Tudor.
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Romania's most vicious anti-Semitic and ultra-nationalist politician, Corneliu Vadim Tudor, is trying hard to persuade people that he has changed his ways. For most journalists and political pundits in Romania, this self-proclaimed Damascene conversion looks like just another political farce from someone with unrivaled histrionic gifts.
If Tudor were a mere political clown, the question of whether or not he still hates Jews would not matter. But Tudor is a political power to be reckoned with. As parliamentary and presidential elections loom, everyone wants to figure out just what he is up to.
Tudor was ex-dictator Nicolae Ceausescu's court poet. He supported the Securitate (Romania's communist-era secret police) and praised Ceausescu's patriotism. When communism collapsed, he blamed every shortcoming in the reform process on "foreigners" - meaning the West, Romania's ethnic Hungarian minority, and especially the Jews. Indeed, he developed a cult for Marshall Ion Antonescu, Romania's dictator between 1940-1944 and Hitler's ally, who was responsible of ordering the massacre of about 200,000 Jews. The violence of Tudor's rhetoric, directed against everybody who opposed him, rose to heights not seen since the Fascist era.
In 1990, Tudor set up a weekly magazine through which he incited vicious and reactionary campaigns. Soon after he founded the extreme nationalist Greater Romania Party (PRM), as well as a so-called "national treason list," on which almost every notable political and cultural figure had his or her place. He threatened (or promised) that criminals would be herded into stadiums and machine-gunned should he come to power.
Although Tudor faced innumerable lawsuits for libel, he could not be silenced. In the 2000 general election, as the ruling center-right coalition imploded, the PRM received about 20% of the popular vote, becoming the second-largest party in parliament. Tudor subsequently finished second in the presidential election.
Then, suddenly, a few months ago, Tudor announced that he had undergone a religious experience and had changed his mind about the Jews. He admitted that he had been anti-Semitic, but he claimed that God had opened his eyes and that he now loved Jews as much as he used to hate them.
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At a time when democracy is under threat, there is an urgent need for incisive, informed analysis of the issues and questions driving the news – just what PS has always provided. Subscribe now and save $50 on a new subscription.
Subscribe Now
Indeed, he began apologizing for his earlier anti-Semitic hate speech. The man who once said that he could "well imagine world culture without Jews" now claimed to realize how quintessential the Jews are for world culture. He announced that he had hired Eyal Arad, a well-known Israeli spin-doctor, to run his presidential campaign. "The Jews" were not his enemies any more, he said; they were even working for him.
But Tudor didn't stop with prolix apologies. He soon sponsored the unveiling of a bust of the assassinated Israeli premier Yitzak Rabin at Brasov in Transylvania. For the occasion, Tudor wore a yarmulke and spoke about his "philo-Semitism" for more than two hours . Other PRM representatives, provided with yarmulkes by Tudor, shuffled their feet awkwardly.
A chorus sang Romanian and Jewish songs and everybody expressed the vow that Vadim would be the "next and the first Christian President" of Romania, the yarmulke notwithstanding! Next, Tudor headed a PRM delegation to lay a wreath at Auschwitz, where the one-time Holocaust denier declared that Jews had been exterminated in Romania.
What lies behind this political opportunism? Tudor knows that his electoral success in 2000 belongs to the past. At the local elections held in June, the PRM did poorly. The really big battle this November will be joined by the Social Democrats (PDSR) and by the centrist alliance Democratic Alliance. Tudor has no chance of becoming "the first Christian President of Romania." His only chance of gaining even a share of power is to join in a future coalition, and for this he has to look semi-respectable.
In fact, Tudor's strategy may work, because the ex-communist PDSR, led by President Ion Iliescu and Prime Minister Adrian Nastase, will probably not oppose such an alliance if it is necessary to give them a majority after November's general election. They are desperate to cling to power, no matter what, and so are unlikely to question Tudor's democratic pedigree. After all, they governed together with the PRM from1992 to 1996.
Yet, there is a hitch: Romania is due to join the EU in 2007, and with the PRM in the government but branded as an extremist, anti-Semitic party, the integration process could be derailed. No EU government will want to invite into the club an administration that contains Romania's far uglier version of Le Pen and Haider. This is why Tudor desperately needs a patina of democratic respectability. Tudor seems to hope that by putting on a yarmulke and repenting his anti-Semitism, he will deceive a few naive Western politicians.
But no one should be fooled. Despite his political zigzags, Tudor has been extremely consistent. He has always thought and written that "the Jews" brought capitalism, communism, spiritualism, alcoholism, decadent Hollywood movies, and pornography to Romania. But saying that publicly won't work anymore, not because Romanians do not think this way (many certainly do), but because the political class from left to right wants to be part of Europe and won't associate with anyone who puts that desire at risk.
So Tudor's embrace of the Jews is a conversion of convenience. If Paris was worth a mass to the French kings of old, Bucharest is worth a yarmulke to Tudor.